CORPORATISM RUN AMOK

These three stories from Corporate Watch have been absent from the mainstream press and they are devastating indictments of the Bush Administrations policies of World Corporatism. Read them carefully.

Halliburton Milks British Nuclear Submarines for Millions

By Solomon Hughes Special to CorpWatch July 25, 2003
ANOTHER HALLIBURTON INVESTIGATION - This one by the British.
Just outside of Plymouth on Britain's south coast are the Devonport royal dockyards, which have maintained ships for the British navy for hundreds of years. For the last three decades these docks have been the home for four nuclear powered "Trident" submarines, each carrying 48 atomic warheads that roam the world's oceans. In 1997 Tony Blair's Labour government sold the docks to Devonport Management Ltd. (DML) -- a consortium led by Brown and Roota division of Halliburton, and contracted the new owners to refuel and refit the nuclear engines, which involves stripping and replacing their radioactive parts once a decade.
Halliburton chief executive officer Dick Cheney took a tour of the dockyards in April 2000. "My general impression is that our British colleagues are far ahead of us in the US in the extent to which they have adopted changes in culture, attitude and style of operation that are required for successful privatization efforts," said Cheney, just months before he quit his job at the company to launch a successful bid to become vice-president of the United States.

Not surprisingly Cheney's new job as vice-president has coincided with a major increase in military privatization in the United States with Halliburton profiting handsomely from contracts to supply US troops around the world from Bosnia to Uzbekistan. Meanwhile Halliburton has allegedly been milking their British colleagues for as much money as they can get. The National Audit Office (NAO) was called in to investigate when Devonport project costs budgeted at $904 million in 1997 increased by over 50% by 2002.

It is simply amazing how much money Cheney has saved Britain and the USA while giving billions to Halliburton.
__________________________________________________________________________

Repeal Bush Immunity for US Oil Companies in Iraq

Source: Institute for Policy Studies Posted: July 23, 2003

WASHINGTON - Representatives of The Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) and Government Accountability Project (GAP) today urged Congress to investigate - and repeal - an executive order signed by President George W. Bush that gives sweeping powers to U.S. oil companies operating in Iraq.

The two public interest organizations charged that President Bush far overreached a May 22, 2003, United Nations resolution that was designed to protect Iraqi oil revenues for humanitarian purposes when he signed an executive order that could place U.S. corporations above the law for any activities "related to" Iraqi oil, either in Iraq or domestically. Bush signed Executive Order 13303 the same day that the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1483, which sets up a development fund, from Iraqi oil revenues, for "humanitarian purposes."

"This order reveals the true motivation for the present occupation: absolute power for U.S. corporate interests over Iraqi oil," said IPS Senior Researcher Jim Vallette. "This is the smoking gun that proves the Bush administration always intended to free corporate investments, not the Iraqi people."

"In terms of legal liability, the Executive Order cancels the concept of corporate accountability and abandons the rule of law," charged Tom Devine, legal director of the Government Accountability Project. "It is a blank check for corporate anarchy, potentially robbing Iraqis of both their rights and their resources."
_________________________________________________________________________

Enron Style Corporate Crime and Privatization A look at the U.S. Coalition of Service Industries

By Darren Puscas Polaris Institute June 20, 2003

The U.S. Coalition of Service Industries (CSI or USCSI) is the largest services oriented lobby group in the United States. With prime access to elite government and corporate circles, its various corporate members gain handsomely from international trade agreements, from IMF or World Bank handouts, and from privatization programs. As well, many USCSI corporate members have been embroiled in the corporate scandals that have rocked the U.S. and the world in the past two years. You can almost pick at random from the USCSI membership to find a corporation that is either privatizing public services, embroiled in financial controversy, or gaining from the misery imposed by an IMF loan.

The degree to which members of the USCSI were among the corporations most involved in the recent wave of corporate scandals is disturbingly high. For example, Enron, Andersen, and WorldCom were all USCSI members at the time they were hit with the scandals (Enron and Andersen have since left the coalition). Enron was the company that hid debt from its books in order to artificially inflate its value to shareholders and was also heavily involved in the illegal trading which led to the California energy crisis in 2001. Andersen was Enron's accountant who let this all happen. And Worldcom was the corporation that inflated profits by nearly $4bn through deceptive accounting and later went bankrupt (only to reemerge as MCI). And, we shall see, this is just the tip of the iceberg, as many other USCSI corporations were heavily involved in various forms of illegal and unethical activity.